Sunday, May 13, 2012

Touring San Cristobal

One of the first things we did on San Cristobal was to take
a walk up Cerro Tijeretas or “Frigatebird Hill.” While we saw no evidence of
nesting frigates there (and only a few soaring over the beach below), we saw a
myriad of other wildlife. First, we took a lava trail connector to the interpretive
trail.

On the lava trail, we saw our first lava lizards. As with
much of the other wildlife on the Galapagos, different islands have different
species of these ubiquitous reptiles.

Male San Cristobal Lava Lizard

Female San Cristobal Lava Lizard

Even spiders appeared new and different, since we were at
the Galapagos.

We also saw this gnarly centipede. It was eight or nine
inches long!

We spotted the first of “Darwin’s finches,” and saw
many more of these as we made our way up the interpretive trail to the viewing
platform at the top.

Ground Finch

Warbler Finch

A few days later, we took a tour of the island which
included several interesting wildlife habitats. The first was Laguna El Junco,
a freshwater lake in the crater of an extinct volcano. The volcano is only about
600 meters high, a short but steep hike up a path and wooden staircase.The volcano’s
slopes house the Miconia plant, an endemic shrub whose habitat is disappearing.

The crater was smaller than I’d imagined and is one of the
only, if not the only, source of freshwater on the Galapagos islands we
visited.

Laguna El Junco

From there, we could also see the San Cristobal wind farm,

a colorful wetland below,

and one of the most picturesque (in terms of its setting)
HAM radio stations in the world.

We also had beautiful views of the north, west, and southwest
coasts of the island.

However, the highlight of El Junco are the frigatebirds, who
go there to wash the salt crystals off their feathers.

As we toured the island (in a small tour group of three
which included us and a German sailor), we saw some of the many tropical fruits
growing on the island: banana, papaya,
guava, passion fruit, and mandarins. We later learned that the guava covering
much of the island is an introduced species. I also wonder about the mandarins
we saw, since one I had onboard was confiscated upon our arrival.

We next visited the Galapaguera Cerro Colorado, a giant
tortoise breeding center. Even though the Galapagos are known for its giant
tortoises (of which there are currently 11 subspecies left), these magnificient
animals are threatened by a variety of human activities. On San Cristobal,
conversion of their natural forest habitat to other uses and predation on their
eggs by introduced species such as rats and feral cats are two factors contributing
to the turtle’s struggle for survival. At the breeding center, they give the
tortoises a head start by removing the eggs from the wild, incubating and
raising them in a nursery, moving the turtles to an adaptation pen between two
to five years, and then returning them to the wild.

At Galapaguera Cerro Colorado, we were able to observe some
of the native plants in the tortoise’s natural habitat. One of the most
important for people to know about is the manzanillo, or poison apple tree.
While highly toxic to humans, and found in many other places on the island, this
plant is an important part of the diet of giant tortoises on San Cristobal.

Young manzanillo

Mature manzanillo

"Poison apple" from manzanillo

While not a completely natural setting (the park creates
feeding and water stations near the trail to draw the tortoises into view of
the visitors), you are pretty much guaranteed to see some giant tortoises at
the Galapaguera. Not all of the tortoises remain at the feeding stations;
however, and we did observe others along the trail and under the foliage. We were able to observe some of the older tortoises, who
ranged anywhere from 60 to 100 years old.

San Cristobal giant tortoise

The females were smaller than the males, but both sexes
exhibited some territorial behavior. Here, one male challenges another male for
(what looked like) the space he was occupying.

These two females were battling over a leaf. Perhaps it was
a particularly succulent leaf, because there were identical (to us) leaves like
it in the nearby feeding station. Our guide remarked that watching the
tortoises is like watching “American football.” I responded that American
football wasn’t over a leaf, but then I added that football is over less than a leaf! (A leaf is food for
survival, while football is just a game.)

Another inhabitant of the forest was the San Cristobal mockingbird.

Our last stop of the day was La Loberia, a sea lion rookery
and popular surfing beach.

Here, Patrick finally captured one of San Cristobal's bright yellow warblers on film.

We also saw a native beach morning glory.

We were supposed to do some snorkeling at La Loberia, but it
was too rough on the day of our tour. While we saw many sea lions---which I
wrote about in the last post---we were only able to see one or two marine
iguanas. Due to the tide coming in, the iguanas had fled the basking rocks near
the surf zone and had crawled under the beach vegetation for their siesta. We could see the tracks their tails left in the sand. As
Patrick remarked, “It’s even too hot here for the iguanas!” We learned that it is best to visit the beach during low or slack tide if you are in search of marine iguanas.

However, I really wanted to see some marine iguanas, so
Patrick humored me by returning to La Loberia two days later. (It’s just
outside of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, and it’s possible to walk there, although
we took a taxi.) This time, in addition to seeing a unique lava heron...

....we were much more successful in viewing iguanas! We
saw some of the older, mature iguanas basking on the lava boulders near the
surf zone.

They were confident in their aura of cool, unperturbed by our
presence. They sit still as statues and indeed, their mouths look like they are
composed of granite. Only their warm golden eyes give any indication of life.

Further on down the trail, past the sea lions, surfers, and
crab zone, we found many younger iguana. These were smaller in size and a
little more wary of us. “Older” and “younger” are relative terms: I don’t know
the life span of a marine iguana. Reptiles, in general, are long-lived, and we
later learned that a terrestrial iguana can live to up to 60 years old. I
assume the life span of marine iguanas is similar.

As we checked out of San Cristobal, we felt like we’d seen
most of what the island has to offer. This was our first stop in the Galapagos,
and we ended up losing a lot of time on logistics. (Check-in or waiting for
aspects of check-in were spread out over parts of three days; arranging and
receiving fuel delivery took the better part of a day; we needed fresh food and laundry done after a three-week passage; and check-out also took
several visits to our agent’s representative.) If I had it to do over, I would
have visited the Interpretation Center early on to learn more about the
island’s geology and history. I also would have taken a tour to Punta Pitt,
where we learned too late about the booby rookery and tropic birds you can see
there. Overall, our stop on San Cristobal was a great introduction to the Galapagos
wildlife and the Galapaguenses (Ecuadoran people who live in the Galapagos islands).

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Photo Credits

All photos on this blog were taken by either Patrick Dayshaw or Kirsten Rohrbach unless otherwise noted. Please contact us for permission and the appropriate photo credit before using our photos in a public forum.